


Attraction Action Reaction

by supersocialshark



Series: Worlds of Possibility [1]
Category: Ocean's Eleven Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: (and protect me i'm smol and shy), Developing Relationship, Falling In Love, I might make this a series idk, M/M, No Dialogue, just a short little something, maybe starting with an uncommon pairing in such a small fandom is not the best idea but here we are, please don't hate it, protect linus caldwell, this is my first ever work, what do guys even keep in their bathroom cabinets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-19 02:53:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19348057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supersocialshark/pseuds/supersocialshark
Summary: Linus wakes up and finds himself in an unexpected place. As he explores his surroundings and remembers the night before, he grows uncertain of what to make of his situation.





	Attraction Action Reaction

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone ever reads this, I want you to know you have my infinite gratitude. 
> 
> This is my first ever fanfiction.
> 
> English is not my first language.
> 
> I don't own the Ocean's films or its characters.
> 
> Title from the Aislers Set song.

Linus wakes up with an unfamiliar taste in his mouth. 

Slowly, he looks up and observes that the numbers on his watch don’t glow the same way, in the light of someone else’s lamp. Everything is the same as yesterday - yet still everything has changed. The same world, but a different bedroom. Last night, he was in love. This morning, he can’t even form a coherent thought. 

For his entire life, he has parried dangers as though he’s only got one life left before game over. No checkpoints to help catch his breath, just one chance before everything is over, and absolutely no room for mistakes or losses. 

That’s what it has felt like, his whole life. His childhood, his parents’ constant vigilance, suddenly breaking up and having no choice but to move to another place, the perpetual uncertainty, the fear… His adolescence, surrendering to the knowledge that there can be no future for him that doesn’t end up in crime and delinquency. And now, his adulthood, the pressure to live up to Bobby Caldwell’s reputation, his father’s expectations, behind his back leading him to Danny Ocean and his insane coup. Leading him to Rusty Ryan… 

He’s not even sure he is still in the house, because in the brightening bedroom, Linus is now alone. 

He leaves the bed, hesitantly stepping into the bathroom, even more hesitantly opening the cabinet which is not his. The cabinet is a mess, so very different from Linus’s own, where contacts, shaving cream and razors are neatly sectioned and easy to find. Letting his eyes roam over empty pill bottles, old colognes, different brands of toothpaste and (Linus squints) hair ties with a couple of loose hairs in, Linus decides it’s no longer a mystery what takes his companion so long in the mornings. 

After having stolen a few aspirins and drunk a glass of water, he decides to leave this place. As quietly as possible, he pads into the kitchen, even though it’s clear no one else is in the house. His partner of the night must have left early in the morning, and he notes that he washed yesterday’s wine glasses before he left. The only traces of Linus being here, drinking, making love, sleeping, are in the process to dissolve in detergent. 

What they’re doing, the two of them, won’t last. It never does. 

Frozen to the spot, he continues to look at the glasses in the sink. Perhaps he wanted to erase the memory of Linus being here, the memory of their conversations about Linus’s depressions, which ended with the other telling him he couldn’t have been depressed, not in “clinical sense” and “it’s important not to play with such heavy words”. For several hours, Linus forced himself to lie under his analytical scalpel - was amused by it, even. 

Now, the memory makes him snort. After having located his backpack, he grabs it and leaves without locking the door. He doesn’t have a key anyway.

Fate however, not that Linus believes in such rubbish, doesn’t want it to end this way. Perhaps fate is Danny, not wanting two of his henchmen to screw up the coup by not being able to look at each other only because they have no self control. Or perhaps fate is Linus’s father wanting his son to get along with someone so reputable. Or why not his mother, thrilled to finally welcome an in-law into the family.

Whoever planned it, Linus finds himself face to face with Rusty Ryan, the very person with whom he spent the night, the person whose home he just left.

Being a deficient actor doesn’t really play well with what he does for a living, but the truth is that people usually are able to tell what Linus is thinking and feeling without having to ask any questions. Sometimes he really hates it - hates to live with his whole emotional register on the outside, leaking everything he wants to keep a secret like a broken ink pen.

It’s clear his acting skills have not improved. It’s clear that everything he’s feeling - the surprise, the relief, the love - is shown on full display on his face, because Rusty grins, and says:

“Leaving so soon?”


End file.
